I like Dr. Bob Utley’s analysis of faith and the promise of Isaac. Speaking of how Abram and Sarai reacted to the promise of God in Genesis 15, he said: “These were not perfect people. There are no ‘perfect’ people! God does not demand perfect faith! The focus in Genesis is YHWH’s faithfulness, not Abram’s or Sarai’s.”
Worldviews are difficult to change. One cannot demand a color-blind person to distinguish between a blue cloth and an orange one. Abraham was a work in progress. His faith in God was also a work in progress. When the Lord called him out of Ur in Mesopotamia, the text says his father ‘took’ him out. Apparently, he told his father, what the Lord told him, and his father took charge of the situation. So, Abram followed his father out of Ur to Haran. Of course, Abram’s father didn’t have the vision, and to be accurate, Abram was called out of his father’s house to go to a land he couldn’t identify. Nevertheless, he didn’t completely leave his father’s house until both he and Lot separated in Genesis 13. So, Abram/Abraham was a work in progress, as was his faith. He wasn’t perfect, and God didn’t make demands of him to believe or to act perfectly, Genesis 17:1 notwithstanding.[1]
Just after the Lord explained the context of his covenant of circumcision, he changed Abram’s name to Abraham. The Lord told him that he has also changed Sarai’s name to Sarah. Moreover, God said that he would bless Sarah, and she would become a mother of nations, and kings would come from her, because she would give Abraham a son from her own womb. Upon hearing such a thing, Abraham fell upon his face before the Lord and laughed within himself at the thought that a son would be born to him at one hundred years of age, and by Sarah who was ninety (Genesis 17:15-17)!
Then, when Abraham realized the consequences of Sarah having a child, he suddenly made a plea before the Lord: “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” (Genesis 17:18). However, the Lord told Abraham that his covenant would be established through Sarah, Abraham’s wife. She would bear a son and call his name Isaac, and the Lord’s covenant would be established through him, at the proper time the following year (Genesis 17:19, 21).
Nevertheless, God said he heard Abraham’s prayer for Ishmael, and he, also, would be blessed. The Lord would multiply Ishmael’s seed exceedingly, and he would be very fruitful. Twelve princes would come from him, and he would become a great nation, but as far as the covenant is concerned, that would be established through Isaac, not Ishmael. When the Lord ended his discussion with Abraham, he left (Genesis 17:20-22).
Immediately afterward, Abraham took his son, Ishmael, and every male born in his house by his servants, and every male servant which he bought with money and circumcised every one of them. Abraham was 99 years old, when he was circumcised, and Ishmael was 13. Both were circumcised on the same day, as was everyone else, who were males and living in Abraham’s house (Genesis 17:23-27).
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[1] We understand the word perfect to mean: precise, accurate, flawless etc. God makes no such demands on mankind. The word in Genesis 17:1 means: blameless, upright, wholehearted; vis-à-vis to be a man of integrity.
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